Astor and Gray atop the Astoria Column

In what was never meant to be a week-long series on the Astoria Column, I've shown pictures of the column taken much lower down and pictures from the top, a picture of the inside stairwell, and a picture looking up into the skylight. I've even shown the door taking you from the top of the staircase landing to the breathtaking viewing platform. Here is a picture of the top while standing on the platform that wraps around the column's top. The four names that were deemed important enough to place around the circumference were Robert Gray (the European credited with first sailing into the Columbia River), John Jacob Astor (who was never here, but whose fur trading company made a whale of an impact), William Clark and Merriwether Lewis (who spent a cold, wet winter at the end of the Lewis and Clark trail in 1805-1806). (Yes, Ciel, I have hundreds of posts just waiting for you.) Are we done with the Column yet? Time will tell.